In the early ’70s, before anyone had ever heard of Americana music, Emmylou Harris was breaking new ground in country music fusion with friend and mentor Gram Parsons. Now that insurgent country has found its way into the CD players of hipsters everywhere, Harris is serving not just as one of the queens of this genre but as a co-headliner on the hot Lilith Fair tour coming to the World Music Theatre this Saturday. We caught up with Harris for a chat before her alternately folky and hard-rocking show earlier this summer at the City Stages festival in her home town of Birmingham, Ala.
Q. How did you get involved in Lilith?
A. I’d always liked (organizer) Sarah (McLachlan) very much and we’d done a show of what I think was a preview of this Lilith tour last year in Vancouver with Paula Cole and Lisa Loeb and a lot of other women I didn’t get a chance to see because of logistics.
Q. Did you see it as a response to the male-dominated tours of the summer?
A. I don’t think I had any opinion one way or the other. I knew there was some talk about it, but I just think (the women in Lilith) are all great artists. It’s true there hasn’t been a tour with all women, but I look at it as more of a musical thing, that they fit together musically and not just by gender. So ultimately I think it’s just a bunch of really talented women who just happen to be women playing a show together.
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Lilith Fair, which also features Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, Indigo Girls and Lisa Loeb, starts at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. The World is at Ridgeland Avenue just south of Interstate Highway 80, Tinley Park. Tickets are $31.25 to $38.75. 312-559-1212.